Taylor Everlasting

C.15

**

"WHEN I FIND YOU ITS ON!!!!!" Fatima shouted into the air. She was dressed in a black hoodie and sweatpants with the hood pulled up. She held the gun close to her body as she snaked her way around the corner just barely being noticed by the assailant. She dropped to the floor behind the couch and crawled quietly through the family room. She was trying to make it back to the kitchen where her other gun hid behind the pantry door. She passed a body on her way there and decided to taunt her opponent. "It's just me and you. Don't tell me you're afraid of a girl!!" Fatima caught a reflection of her attacker in the glass of the oven and decided to make her move. She stood up firing two shots center mass.

"Dang Mom!!!! I thought I had you." Zane said dropping to his knees in a dramatic defeat. Zac and Amaya came crashing into the kitchen to see who won. "Zac you should be ashamed of yourself." Fatima laughed. You didn't even last a full minute!" Fatima playfully chastised her fiancé. Everyone removed their shields and mask dropping the laser tags guns to the floor. It was Saturday afternoon in the Taylor house and everyone was enjoying what has become a family tradition. Fatima would make them a big breakfast and Zac was in charge of activities and the kids got a much-needed brain reset. "Everyone didn't grow up training to be a sharpshooter! What was Pops preparing you for? The Purge?" Zac shot playfully at Fatima. "Daddy, can we play paintball next week?" Fatima shouted from across the room before Zac could answer. "Absolutely not!" "I'm with her!" Amaya chimed in. "it look painful." Amaya continued. "sorry man. the ladies have spoken. Maybe you and I can go one day jus the two of us." Zac offered trying to ease the blow of her rejection. "Again, absolutely not." Fatima responded in disbelief that Zac was even considering it. "Why not?" Zac asked genuinely confused. "I just watched a tick took about a little boy who lost his eye playing paintball after he got accidentally hit in the face. Zane?"

"yes?" Zane answered with baited breathe trying to figured out where she was going with her reasoning.

"You like having two eyes right?"

"MOMMMMM"

Zac felt bad for Zane. Fatima was low-key a helicopter mom at times and to make matters worse, it was always random. She didn't mind him practicing martial arts or skateboarding down hills, but she drew the line at football, she wouldn't even entertain the idea of flag football. He could do a zipline or a ropes course but there was no way he was going camping because obviously there are mountain lions that can eat him or mountain people who will absolutely try to steal him. Zac didn't understand how she picked when to helicopter, but he would wait until Zane was gone to try to reason with her about some of his requests. However, this time he was grateful for the immediate shutdown. Paintball really does hurt like a bitch! Zac watched Zane's bottom lip hit the ground. "hey man. if we have to spend the dragging that bottom lip around you aren't gonna have much fun at the next spot. Go get dressed." Zac instructed the kids.

"Are we going to dinner at Pops tomorrow or are they coming here?" Sunday dinners with the family had become another thing they'd adopted into their routines lately. They decided to stay in their new home since the kids had more space. Zac and Fatima underestimated how much space two kids could occupy. They were always somewhere.

"I was thinking about going out to dinner tomorrow. I want Italian." Fatima said enthusiastically.

"OK. Ill make the reservation for 6 pm. Pops was just talking about going to St. Cecilia the other day."

Fatima's smile flattened at the thought of dining with her father this week. She knew the topic of conversation would be about her going to see her mother and she hadn't exactly told Zac about the situation yet. "oh. When you have a moment tonight, I need to talk to you bout some stuff."